Brigadier Bidhan Chandra Deb, had retired from the Indian Army after forty years of distinguished service to the nation.\u00a0 He was a veteran, who witnessed both wars the country had fought: with China in 1962 and then with Pakistan in 1971.<\/p>\n
At sixty six, he was fitter than a man half his age. Aware of his short height, he was ramrod straight and walked as if he was marching in slow motion. Looking at him the unmistakable signs of pride and arrogance was evident to the discerning eye. He had a head of salt and pepper hair, his huge moustache was dyed jet black.\u00a0 It gave his face a mocking appearance, which was more funny than serious.\u00a0 I met him when I gone to receive him at the airport, as a part of the entourage which was to welcome him to the city.\u00a0 He had been newly appointed the Chief Executive Officer of a proposed Multi-Speciality Hospital by our group of companies.\u00a0 On being introduced to the entourage members, he shook hands with a firm grip and scant interest, a demeanour suggesting little interest in civilians or in civilian life.<\/p>\n
The car he was travelling in was lost in the maze of evening traffic and our car reached the Head Office well before his.\u00a0 Upon arrival, he jumped out and barked at us, \u201cDon\u2019t you know the rules of a convoy?\u201d The senior accountant who was driving our vehicle stood transfixed at the words, which he found hard to follow, for the voice was high-pitched, dry and rasping. He was also a chain-smoker and often spoke with a cigarette between his lips which made his vocal onslaughts upon the civilians quite unintelligible.\u00a0 Much later we realized that he had an uncertain temper and often spoke in sarcastic taunts.\u00a0 He no longer wore a uniform but in his mind Brigadier B.C.Deb was yet serving the armed forces.<\/p>\n
He was put in sole charge of the proposed super-speciality hospital, considering his immaculate curriculum.\u00a0 His appointment was followed by three others: one a pretty young lady as his personal secretary.\u00a0 A junior assistant, who was an MBA Graduate and a peon to run his errands.\u00a0 Within a fortnight all had resigned from services.\u00a0 According to\u00a0 grapevine; he was difficult task master and his discipline was army like: no excuses and no nonsense.\u00a0 Within the first three months, two of his next set of subordinates had also resigned.\u00a0 The third could not be traced. His iron fist in boxing gloves did not make sense to his subordinates, who deserted his barracks with an alacrity that was both alarming and worrying for the management.<\/p>\n
When the Manager-Personnel was summoned to his room, he was asked by the Brigadier, \u201cWhy does it take so long to replace three people? Don\u2019t you maintain a database of suitable candidates? Let us get on with some real action on the personnel front.\u00a0 I believe you deal with Personnel or is it just your personal matters?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sir, suitable and efficient personnel are hard to find these days,\u201d the head of personnel had murmured respectfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can\u2019t find them, then produce them!\u201d barked the army man twirling his moustache with a mean dismissive look in his eyes.<\/p>\n
The manager personnel had left the room flabbergasted wondering how to produce three men.\u00a0 He was nearing retirement and widowed. His wife who had recently passed away, was childless.<\/p>\n
Once he had admonished a young receptionist who was newly appointed, \u201cCan\u2019t you wear decent clothes? This is a model medical centre not a centre for modelling. Besides that you are as flat as a sheet of sun mica.\u00a0 What do you have to flaunt?\u00a0 So stop making a spectacle of yourself and this reputed organisation.\u201d She left the office crying and never re-joined.\u00a0 The peons shivered when called to his chamber.\u00a0 He found flaws with most of them.\u00a0 In six months, he had changed half-a-dozen drivers.\u00a0 According to him, they had little driving sense and poor discipline, more suited to drive bullock carts. He could not tolerate indiscipline and no one knew what he meant by it.\u00a0 He expected his drivers to be curt and open the door when he stepped out of the vehicle and close it when he sat down.\u00a0 They always had to be ready with an ashtray so he could tap ash and stub out his cigarette or else he would tap it into the driver\u2019s pocket or worse throw the butt at their faces.\u00a0 Lighting his cigarette moment he put one to his lips was a must for all his drivers.\u00a0 If they did not, he would bark at them, \u201cBloody Fool do you need to be told when you have to answer the call of nature\u2026 you just rush.\u201d They would wonder, if his lighting up meant a call of nature.\u00a0 Once he kicked the security guard at the gates for he had forgotten to salute him.\u00a0 The security agency sought an explanation, to which he had replied, \u201cWe need proper men \u2013 not baboons in uniform who do not respect their superiors. The security agency was unobtrusively changed thereafter.<\/p>\n
Most were fed up with the Brigadier and needless to say the hospital team was not functioning well under his leadership.\u00a0 Few were bold enough to put in complaints to the top management. On being politely told about it, he had commented, \u201cFoolish behaviour and indiscipline needs correction or it is better to eliminate it.\u201d He was unaffected with the spate of resignations or the growing resentment against him, simply dismissing it as \u2013 \u2018bad civilian rubbish\u2019.<\/p>\n
Finally, two unsavoury incidents did him in. Once he had locked up a supplier in his bathroom for supplying sub-standard materials.\u00a0 Upon enquiry by the management, he replied brazenly, \u201cI had my licensed revolver but did not want to waste a bullet on that rotten scoundrel.\u00a0 He should be glad that I did not make him drink from the pot.\u201d On the other occasion, a senior male nurse was assigned to carry the Brigadier\u2019s briefcase to his vehicle, which accidentally slipped out of his hands and fell on to the staircase, prised open, and piles of documents and papers were strewed all over.\u00a0 Among them was a copy of Playboy Magazine which embarrassed many.\u00a0 The Brigadier was furious, and had thundered, \u201cYou bloody fool!….\u00a0 You clumsy wimp!\u00a0 You have been assigned to carry something important and not your wife buttocks that you can afford to let slip?\u201d<\/p>\n
The management\u2019s effort to improve his untoward behaviour met with little success.\u00a0 Various staff meetings broached the topic but the army man would brush it aside, \u201cI abhor unnecessary and foolish talks.\u00a0 Let us give meetings a break for they are the only reason why mankind has not been able to achieve its true potential.\u00a0 Let us get on with some real action on the work front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Progress to the proposed Hospital was tardy and teamwork \u2013 tragic.\u00a0 Work front resembled a forsaken war zone and the action was missing\u2026everything seemed frozen.\u00a0 Even the Brigadier\u2019s thundering cannons refused to thaw the ice of inactivity.<\/p>\n
Finally, the management hauled him up during one of the project meetings attended by a host of doctors and senior professionals.\u00a0 A few harsh comments for the Brigadier by the Managing Director who was a maverick from IIT, shook his ego.\u00a0 He walked out of the meeting but not before stating: \u201cI may have retired from service but not from self-respect.\u00a0 Gentlemen, my resignation will reach your table within the next twenty four hours, I wish you luck with the venture but am afraid that I can no longer be a part of this flop show.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had happened to usher him out of the board room, when he had commented, \u201cYoung man, you know a man without self respect and dignity is like a soldier who has a gun but no bullets in a battlefield.\u00a0 He is simply useless. The best exit for a true soldier is to die on the last day of battle, by the last light and by the last bullet. Then he let out a laugh which sounded like a machine-gun fire and marched off in slow motion.\u00a0 That was the first and last time I heard him laugh. I never saw him again.\u00a0 Some months later I heard he had joined another hospital as its Chief Operating Officer. A year to that day, I happened to meet one of his old drivers and was told that the Brigadier was diagnosed with cancer of the lungs.\u00a0 He fought back to health, soldier that he was and doggedly lived for a couple of years but finally succumbed to the disease.\u00a0 They say \u2013 a cigarette has smoke at one end and a fool at the other.\u00a0 No one dare said that Brigadier Bidhan Chandra Deb, was a fool.\u00a0 Just that he was befooled by pieces of paper and tobacco.\u00a0 What bullets could not do \u2013 they did! Retired him \u2013\u00a0 not just from service \u2026\u2026but life!<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Also check out “I, Me, Myself” by Shamila Janakiraman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brigadier Bidhan Chandra Deb, had retired from the Indian Army after forty years of distinguished service to the nation.\u00a0 He was a veteran, who witnessed both wars the country had fought: with China in 1962 and then with Pakistan in 1971. At sixty six, he was fitter than a man half his age. Aware of … Continue reading “Special Mention Entry from “Draw Them Up” Contest: Just Retired by Amar Agarwala”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7vAZr-Pl","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4088,"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions\/4088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pothi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}